Roadtrip Musings: Distances Yet To Go

"Kiera v. 3,172 Miles: A Road Paved with Words"

Driving requires the keen ability to judge distance. Making a left hand turn and judging the distance between you and the oncoming car. Seeing brake lights far ahead and judging the distance you have to brake yourself. One-third of the way done on a cross country road-trip and judging the distance between sanity and insanity…

Just kidding!

I believe, more than anything else, the best drivers are those who are best at judging distance.

I am no good at judging distance. In fact, I have a habit of underestimating distance. I pretend like that oncoming car won’t have to brake as I’m making a right on red. I pretend like driving 3,172 miles alone is doable. I pretend like the life I’ve just spent 7 months living is not that far from the one I want. 

The other thing about driving long distances is that long distances allow great space for contemplation, and, in my case, existentialism. There’s something about miles and miles of concrete that lulls you into involuntary reflection. You wonder about the distances that brought you here. You wonder about the distances yet to go. You wonder how much distance you need to find where you’re supposed to be.

There are other observations, of course, when driving several thousand miles consecutively. You marvel at the beauty of the Earth. The mountains, the desert, the endless fields of green. You wonder how much of it you haven’t seen yet. You wonder what beauty lies still, waiting for your eyes and your pen. You wonder how the Earth can hold such opposites: from the barren desert of the Southwest to the mighty forests of the Northeast. You wonder about the lives spent in the middle-of-nowhere where the closest grocery store is fifty miles away. You wonder about the choices (or lack of) that brought these faceless souls to this one traffic light town and you wonder if they like their choices or wish they had yours. 

You wonder, you wonder, you wonder. Led by the compass of the moon or trusty Waze, you judge the distance you can make before peeing your pants. You judge every stopped-at travel center’s bathroom, you judge the beef jerky options, you judge the price of gasoline. You judge, you judge, you judge. 

You wonder and judge the distances you’ve passed and you wonder and wait to judge the distances yet to go. 

Do I sound like an uncertain post-grad trying to find their place in the up-until-now distant world? Good. That’s exactly where I’m supposed to be. 

More from me soon,

Kiera

Some of the views that have inspired these musings: